The Cleveland Browns made several separate major investments in quarterback Deshaun Watson. They gave up three first-round picks as well as a pair of mid-round picks in order to get him. They gave him $230 million guaranteed over five years. They accepted the public scorn and blowback that such a move for a player with his background would inevitably create. And they also accepted the possibility of their 2022 season being significantly compromised because of it all.
While Watson has thus far escaped any criminal prosecution across the 10 criminal complaints standing against him, there remain 22 civil lawsuits that he has recently vowed not to settle.